-LRB- CNN -RRB- At the edge of the Syrian war , photographer Furkan Temir found despair packed in tent camps and an outpouring of humanity from a tight-knit Turkish border community .

`` There were too many people . Every day new tent areas sprung up and even that was not enough . People slept in mosques , abandoned homes , schools , any building they can find , and if they could n't find anything , they slept in the street , '' Temir recalls .

The more than three-year Syrian civil war gave ethnic Kurds an opportunity to break away from the central government and operate in semi-autonomous enclaves in the country 's north , but it also meant that when the radical group ISIS threatened to overrun the strategic town of Kobani , the minority stood on its own .

The fury and spectacle of the battle on the Turkish border drew the attention of the world and brought Temir with a sleeping bag , a Canon 6D camera and some spare change to nearby refugee camps , where he immersed himself for 17 days .

`` I could not just come during the day and sleep in a hotel at night because I wanted to feel what they feel and truly understand the situation , '' Temir says , `` I found myself sleeping , eating , sharing cigarettes and daily life with the refugees . When other photographers would come they would hide their faces because they knew the difference . They felt I was more sincere and trusted me . ''

In just four days , 200,000 people from Kobani and the surrounding areas fled the horror of a terror group infamous for mass execution , beheadings and crucifixion . The exodus brought mothers cradling babies sucking on pacifiers and fathers bowing under the weight of belongings wrapped in bed sheets to Turkey 's already strained border .

The international media , generally barred from access by the restrictions of President Bashar al Assad 's government , captured every frame . Television crews perched on Kurdish hilltops broadcast live skirmishes between Kurdish forces and masked ISIS militants just a few hundred kilometers away from the border .

`` I used my camera as an instrument to hold my distance from the reality of what was happening , so I would n't feel 100 % in the situation , '' Temir says . `` There was constant distraction and demolishment . Even the best things that happened destroyed homes and people . ''

The `` best things '' were U.S.-led coalition airstrikes that successfully reversed ISIS ' advance on the town and deterred the expansion of the group 's so-called Islamic caliphate , which stretches from north-central Syria to Iraq 's Falluja .

As Turkey 's Kurdish community buried more of its soldiers and struggled to feed thousands of homeless families , the smoke and flash of American warplanes bombing jihadis proved an outlet for the ethnic group 's seething anger .

`` When you are really close to the war but you are still somewhat safe in your own country , and you see bombs dropping down and people dying and other people applauding this , you can tell this is war tourism . '' Temir says of the Kurds gathered to cheer the aerial campaign .

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The fight for Kobani is just one chapter in a war the United Nations calls `` the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era , '' but the episode features all the facets of the savage conflict that has claimed the lives of more than a 190,000 people and left an entire generation hollow .

`` I am not doing this for fame or money or any earthly reason . First I need to satisfy my own sense of being as human and my connectedness to all humanity , '' Temir says , `` Second I want to provoke a sense of curiosity in people , so they may act on it . ''

Furkan Temir is a Turkish photographer based in Istanbul . You can follow him on Facebook .

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Photographer Furkan Temir spent 17 days immersed in refugee camps on the Turkish border

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Temir brought a sleeping bag , a Canon 6D camera , and some spare change to the camps